What is en_US ?
Mikkel L. Ellertson
mikkel at infinity-ltd.com
Wed Jun 13 14:49:04 UTC 2007
Timothy Murphy wrote:
> I'd like to enter a small caveat
> about the use of the description "en_US"
> when there is no other version of English on offer,
> eg when installing Fedora.
>
> First of all, the difference between different variants of English
> is negligible, in my opinion.
> I never heard of anyone misunderstanding something
> because it was in en_US rather than in en_GB.
>
> Secondly, giving a variant name like this when there is no alternative
> wastes a lot of time going up and down menus
> to see if there is some alternative choice.
>
> I know Americans spell a few words wrongly, but so what?
> Plenty of people make spelling mistakes,
> and it doesn't affect one's understanding in the slightest.
>
> I tested a group of students some years ago,
> to see if they knew whether a book was published in the US or the UK,
> and none of them had the slightest idea.
>
While it probably does not make much difference during install, I
believe it makes a difference on the installed system. I could be
wrong, but I believe that en_GB and en_US have different date
formats, currency formats, and a few other differences. While it
isn't hard to change each of these, it is handy to be able to change
all of them at once.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
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